Homemade Kifta Sandwiches

I wish I could show you through a screen how happy my husband is when these are for dinner. It’s a meal that often takes two of us to complete and it’s loved by the entire family!

These are very healthy, tastes great and are so satisfying!  Rules of food combining may or may not work for this but since everyone is different I urge you to do what’s best for you and your family.  For me personally wheat is very difficult on my body so I stay away from it but the rest of the family has no issues.

I can either have a corn tortilla or a gluten free wrap prepared with coconut flour or even arepas!  I love arepas and grew up eating them so I can pretty much have it with anything. When I’ve had a heavier whole grain start to the morning such as steel cut oats or beans on my salad for lunch, I like having this with butter lettuce as my go to wrap.  It’s very soft and easy to wrap just about anything inside!

Homemade Kifta Sandwiches

The meat mixture takes some time to prepare but it’s well worth the effort!!!

Meat Mix

• 1 pound of ground organic beef
• 1 banana pepper (how hot do you like it? use seeds and all for a kick but I use the bottom half so the kids can enjoy it as well)
• 2 cloves of organic garlic- finely chopped or finely grated
• 1/2 medium Vidalia sweet onion, finely chopped
• half bunch of parsley leaves- finely chopped but no stalks
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt- more or less to taste
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Directions

• Ahead of time, wash and dry the parsley so you can speed up prep time by putting it in the food processor with the onion (not the garlic).  If you use the food processor please pulse it until it has a texture of finely chopped but not smoothie like.  If you over process the onions it will not smell very appetizing.  You can chop it finely as well if you don’t have a food processor on hand.
• Once that mixture is finished, add it to a bowl with the ground beef, grated or finely chopped garlic, salt, finely chopped banana pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil to combine.  DO NOT OVERMIX!
• Let the mixture sit for an hour or more if you have the time to wait, it can be made ahead of time but not more than a few hours.
• This is the part that gets my husband excited because if he cooks it on the BBQ then he’s automatically the Chef and I’m the Sous Chef.  When you’re ready for cooking, pick up a golf ball size and shape it into a log that is smaller on the sides.  The length should be no more than your index finger.  Traditionally this is made on some very long skewers but as a busy mom I do not have the extra time to do that!
• Shape them into the mini logs and set aside while you chop the ingredients for the inside.
• On the bbq these take very little time, probably no more than a few minutes so stay close!  I have made this in the oven before and found that it doesn’t work as well because all the liquid is drawn out of the meat.  If you do use the oven, I would use the broiler on low but it will require turning once.  Other than the bbq you can pan fry these but lightly with very little oil.  I’ve even steamed them on the stove with some water in a shallow pan and they were still good!

Inside the Sandwich

• 1 chopped tomato
• 1/2 sliced or chopped Vidalia onion
• two cups of shredded lettuce
• 10 washed lettuce leaves- my preference is butter lettuce but romaine works great as well

Sauce

• 1 English cucumber grated (make sure to squeeze the excess water out after grating-you can also chop it finely but I prefer grating on the rougher side because the liquid comes out)
• 1 small garlic clove
• 2 cups plain yogurt (greek yogurt or Balkan tastes better but use what works for you)
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (please not the bottled stuff if you can help it)
• 2 tablespoons of tahini
• Salt to taste

Directions

• For the sauce combine all the ingredients with the squeezed cucumber pulp.  Taste for salt and if you want more tahini or more lemon you can adjust to suit.
• To assemble this, open your thin pita but not all the way around, slather some of the sauce, a few of the cooked kifta, then add the vegetables and enjoy!  To be honest I prefer mine with the butter lettuce and now my kids and husband also eats a few with the butter lettuce as well!
• As a side for this I always have a plate of olives and other pickled vegetables.  If you’re wondering what the pink vegetable is in the picture above, I will surely give the recipe for that on another blog post.